You started out in the West End with Bill Kenwright – what brought about the move to opera?

I loved my time in the West End, working on plays and musicals with some brilliant people, but it was around the time it all started getting too reliant on having any 'name' in a show just to get it produced. I needed a break and took the job at Opera Holland Park for three months as a short term job.

I soon realised it was what I had always been looking for. The 'marquee names' in opera are the operas themselves and the composers – it gives a producer like me the chance just to work on getting the very best cast and creative team I can get without needing to rely on a 'name'. Saying that, I would like to think that OHP is a marquee name now itself.

You call yourself a producer, not an administrator – what are the key differences?

Yes, the word administrator is around a lot in opera – when I arrived here I wanted to look at things differently. The basic answer is that I don't administrate things, I instigate them. I start with (literally) a blank page. Putting the teams together and looking for the right blend is what a producer does.

Looking at the big picture and seeing the next move is also part of the job – to make those calls, not wait for the call to be made. Every single production would be altered with a different conductor, director or leading lady. These are the biggest and most crucial decisions I make at work each year.

Opera Holland Park is a relatively small company – is that part of its success?

In the production office there is only me, associate producer Sarah Crabtree, company manager Dougie Turnbull and our assistant Pollyanna Plumstead. Between us we produce up to six main house productions, one family opera out in the park itself (for the last three years Fantastic Mr Fox), a series of recitals for Inspire, OHP's outreach programme, and many other special events.

There is no maze of corridors to get to a decision – a director, conductor or designer can get to me easily and a problem or potential problem can be worked out. Also, with principal singers, chorus, stage management and technical teams, it's easier to build a relationship and really get to know people.

I believe people work better when they are happy and feel appreciated at work. Knowing everybody's name within a company certainly helps create the feeling of a company/family spirit.

What sets Opera Holland Park apart from other summer opera seasons?

Obviously we are in London, the only one of the major summer festivals based in the capital, and with Royal Opera House and ENO closed for most of our season that's a great advantage for us. Another thing is the conscious decision not to have the long dinner intervals that happen at many other festivals. I know why it happens – it is an event – but it isn't for me.

Even though we are rivals to a degree, there is real camaraderie between the management and teams at the summer festivals – we all understand how hard it is and many a time Wasfi Kani, director of Grange Park Opera, and I have put the world to rights over a bottle of wine. A strong and buoyant opera presence in the country is good for us all.

You work closely with general director Mike Volpe – how does the relationship work in practice?

Our relationship needs to be a close and strong one – and it is. We choose the repertoire together; Mike's knowledge of the obscure operas is vastly superior to mine. After that, I am responsible for the artistic side of the business. Mike is more responsible for the business plan, marketing the company, dealing with the press, liaising with the OHP Friends on funding and also overseeing the theatre we have to build and take down every year.

How is your relationship with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea?

RBKC's support of OHP is, I think, unique in this country. The structure of a local authority supporting an opera company is more normal in central Europe than here. Rather than dealing with just the board of an opera company, it is different when and how decisions are made, but on the whole it is a very supportive relationship and also one that I hope brings a lot of civic pride to the borough.

How do you price your programme and with what considerations in mind?

We always try to be as accessible to as many people as possible to get to a performance. While the main ticket price range is between £45 and £65, we have a free ticket scheme for young people aged 9 to 18 and if the person is younger than 16 they get a free ticket for their parent or guardian too. We have 1,200 of those tickets and this season we also have 2,600 Inspire tickets, priced at £12. Fantastic Mr Fox is priced at £5 for adults and £2.50 for children.

The cost of opera tickets is about the sheer amount of people involved in putting an opera on. When you look at the stage, with maybe eight principal singers, 40 chorus, 45 in the orchestra, that's nearly 100 people without even starting to count everyone working backstage. Even the most expensive tickets mean each audience is paying approximately 65p to each person on stage for the evening.

How reliant are you on other forms of support?

Investec Wealth and Investment, our title sponsors for the last three seasons, are incredibly supportive but they also believe in how we run the company and the atmosphere we create.

The Friends of Opera Holland Park are also vitally important to us – this season they have supported us very generously through membership fees, but also through production syndicates where donors see behind the scenes over the months leading up to the production, pledging £330,000 already this year.

Opera is often talked about as a case apart in the arts world – does it have to be this way?

Opera is obviously an expensive art form, involving an orchestra, large chorus and all of the principal singers before we even get to the creative teams, building of the sets, rehearsals and costumes. It's entertainment and if we can just get audiences through the door and into the opera house, we have to rely on ourselves as a business (all of us) to entertain people when they are there.

In this country we tend to be scared of classical music from a distance but when people actually do get to hear or see opera, lots of people love it – they come to it late and wonder why they didn't embrace it earlier.

Who have you learned most from in your career?

There are lots of people I admire now, such as Craig Hassell from Raymond Gubbay (formerly of the English National Ballet) but the people I have learned the most from are not directly connected to our business.

I loved, and still love, John Lennon and Paul McCartney – when I was a kid, listening to the orchestral interlude in A Day in the Life was the first thing that made me listen to orchestral sounds and in a way, that set me off on this whole journey.

I've probably learned most of all from President Bartlet in The West Wing. His vision, "see the whole board" – the desire to do things in the right way, even when sometimes you know you have to admit defeat – is everything I would want to be and be seen as being as a boss.

What key piece of advice would you give others wanting your job?

To try to do as many of the jobs in theatre and/or opera that go towards the whole experience – knowing what each person or department actually does, how they do it and what that contributes to the whole picture isn't vital, but it just helps a lot!